Current Affairs Quiz-September, 2020

Notes:
The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen delivered her first annual State of the European Union address.
During the address, she urged the EU members to build a stronger European health union. She also announced the creation of a new agency for biomedical advanced research and development (BARDA). She also proposed to convene a global health summit next year.

Notes:
Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank presented the first ever AICTE-Visvesvaraya Best Teacher Awards 2020.
The award has been conferred to 12 faculty members of AICTE approved institutes on the occasion of Engineers Day. The award has been introduced to identify extraordinary teachers and recognize their best practice in the field of higher technical education.

Notes:
As per an official Government data, more than 1600 Indian companies have received Foreign direct investments (FDI) worth USD 1 billion from China from April 2016 to March 2020.
The investments were received by companies in 46 sectors. Among them, automobile industry, printing of books, electronics, services and electrical equipment received the highest FDI.

Notes:
Kerala State Electronic Development Corporation (Keltron), owned by the Government of Kerala, is set to manufacture commercially available Ventilators.
The corporation has signed a pact with Society for Bio Medical Technology (SBMT) under the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) for technical expertise in ventilator production.

Notes:
The 36th National Games was scheduled to organised at Goa from October 20, 2020 to November 4, 2020.
The Sports Ministry had postponed the National games, due to outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Chief Minister of Goa earlier announced that five months will be required after announcement of dates, to purchase required sports equipment.

Notes:
The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has permitted SII – Serum Institute of India to resume clinical trials of COVID vaccine, which was paused last week as per an order by DCGI.
The SII is conducting trials of the vaccine being developed by Oxford University’s Jenner Institute and Astra Zeneca. DCGI has advised SII to take additional care during the trial and to submit the details of medication to ensure that it in accordance with the protocol for the management of adverse events.

Notes:
Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Amitabha Ghosh has recently passed away at the age of 90.
He had the shortest stint as the RBI Governor for 21 days, from January 15, 1985 to February 4, 1985. He was earlier serving as a Deputy Governor of RBI. He handed over the designation to the 17th RBI Governor R N Malhotra.

Notes:
Indian Railways has decided to levy ‘User fee’ in addition to train fares in some major stations. This has been stated by the Railway board CEO VK Yadav.
The additional fee would be used to revamp railway stations and modernize their infrastructure in order to attract investments. It has been decided that only 10 to 15 % of the total stations would be charged with this additional fee.

Notes:
Social Media Giant Facebook has recently launched Facebook Business Suite’, a new interface for people to manage their small businesses.
The people who operate their businesses on Facebook and Instagram can manage their profiles and advertisements, including boosting their posts, using a single interface. They can receive all business-related notification and alerts in one interface.

Notes:
The Central Government has decided to depute a high-level Central team to Jammu, to help tackle Covid-19.
The team is said to have interactions with the District Collectors and Health Officers of Jammu, as the district has reported a rise in the number of new COVID cases recently. Jammu has reported a doubling time of 15.4 days and the recovery rate is only 33.9 per cent.